Competitive labor market

Mark Kurlyandchik Detroit Free Press Published 6:42 AM EST Nov 15, 2018 Halloween may be over but many of metro Detroit’s restaurants continue to be haunted by ghosts of a different type. “We’ve had people with relatively easy, mellow prep jobs walk off in the middle of a shift. We’ve had people that seem phenomenal on paper just not show up for work and disappear,” said Axle Brewing Company owner Dan Riley, whose Livernois Tap beer hall and restaurant in Ferndale has struggled to attract and retain line cooks. Riley’s account has become painfully common among local restaurants feeling the effects of a nationwide skilled labor shortage that's particularly challenging emerging culinary markets like metro Detroit. “I had five interviews scheduled last week for a line cook,” said Samy Eid of his family’s upscale Lebanese restaurant Phoenicia in Birmingham. “None of them showed up and only one of … [Read more...] about Restaurant boom threatened by skilled labor shortage

Mark Kurlyandchik Detroit Free Press Published 6:00 AM EST Nov 15, 2018 Halloween may be over but many of metro Detroit’s restaurants continue to be haunted by ghosts of a different type. “We’ve had people with relatively easy, mellow prep jobs walk off in the middle of a shift. We’ve had people that seem phenomenal on paper just not show up for work and disappear,” said Axle Brewing Company owner Dan Riley, whose Livernois Tap beer hall and restaurant in Ferndale has struggled to attract and retain line cooks. Riley’s account has become painfully common among local restaurants feeling the effects of a nationwide skilled labor shortage that's particularly challenging emerging culinary markets like metro Detroit. “I had five interviews scheduled last week for a line cook,” said Samy Eid of his family’s upscale Lebanese restaurant Phoenicia in Birmingham. “None of them showed up and only one of … [Read more...] about A skilled labor shortage is changing metro Detroit restaurants

Baltimore's reputation as a sports city continues to grow, thanks to the Super Bowl champion Ravens and the surging Orioles. It's also known for losing corporate headquarters, making it the largest U.S. city without a Fortune 500 company. That disconnect means competition for corporate sponsors who underwrite sporting events and venues is intense, and some worry that supply is outpacing demand. This week, organizers of the Grand Prix of Baltimore acknowledged they won't be able to land a title sponsor for the Labor Day weekend car-racing event. Other event planners are still searching. The LPGA, which will host a tournament in Owings Mills next year, has invited prominent business leaders to the course for a presentation Monday meant to generate interest in the event. The Colonial Athletic Association, which in 2014 will begin a three-year stint of holding its basketball tournament in Baltimore, also is on the hunt for sponsors. And venues such as 1st Mariner Arena are looking for … [Read more...] about Crowded Baltimore sponsorship market strained by new sports entities

Grocery chains Giant Food and Safeway dominate food retailing in the Baltimore region, but nontraditional food sellers — convenience stores, drugstores and mass merchants — are grabbing bigger chunks of the market, a supermarket analysis shows.Little changed in Baltimore's grocery landscape in the past year as a crowded field of retailers meant only a handful of new stores opened and no major players entered the market, according to Columbia-based trade journal Food World, which recently released its annual market study."The market is still overstored," said Jeff Metzger, Food World's publisher. "There are a lot of different options in terms of the actual retailers themselves and the style of retailing. … Baltimore is a very competitive, overstored, diverse marketplace, and it's been that way for about a decade now."It has created a lot of diversity, which is wonderful for consumers and not so wonderful for the actual retailers," he said.Giant, the Landover-based unit … [Read more...] about Giant Food ranks first in supermarket sales in Baltimore market

Mars Super Markets, a family-owned fixture in Baltimore's grocery landscape since the 1940s, will close its stores this summer, laying off hundreds of employees amid declining sales and intense competition.While Weis Markets agreed this week to buy five of the chain's 13 stores, the eight remaining stores will close July 31, Rosedale-based Mars said Wednesday."As you all know, the company has been struggling with declining sales for several years," Chris D'Anna, Mars chairman and CEO, wrote in a memo to employees obtained Wednesday by The Baltimore Sun. "We have tried cutting costs everywhere we can while preserving jobs and benefits, but it has not been enough."Competition is cutthroat in the razor-thin margin world of grocery sales, and analysts say Mars struggled to keep up with emerging trends."The industry has changed so much since 1943," said Jeremy Diamond, director of food brokerage company the Diamond Marketing Group. "The grocers that don't evolve and don't change with the … [Read more...] about Mars Super Markets will close all stores July 31